Of the world’s top-five most connected economies, four were in Asia in the third quarter of 2021, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). China had the highest liner shipping connectivity followed by Singapore, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and United States
A majority of the largest ports in the world are in Asia. In 2020, the developing economies in Asia and Oceania handled 509 million TEUs of containers, about 62% of world port container traffic
“The Southeast Asian market is steadily growing which allows carriers to add to the number of direct routes to offer competitive transit times to the intra-Asian market. This creates several opportunities for us to increase our direct service portfolio and offer more options to our customers. A direct service avoids potential delays caused by port congestion at transshipment hubs,” says Ruchira Gregory, Shipco’s Regional Head of Trade lane Development
With shorter transits between ports in Asia, the impact of delays is also disproportionately greater. Mr. Chien points out, “This means customers will mostly be looking for direct service as the only option.”
Source: Shipco Transport May 2022